


an abrupt change of fortune

by Stultiloquentia



Series: A:tLA Prompts [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Flirty Aang/Zuko, Gen, Not The Legend of Korra Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-20
Updated: 2010-08-20
Packaged: 2018-05-28 11:43:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6327616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stultiloquentia/pseuds/Stultiloquentia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tiny prompt fill (the title is the prompt) for recessional. Appa goes karma-bending.</p>
            </blockquote>





	an abrupt change of fortune

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Feather (lalaietha)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lalaietha/gifts).



"I'm in council with the Avatar," Zuko told his steward, "and not to be disturbed." Nobody but said steward, the Red Watch, and his wife needed to know the council was flopped on a picnic blanket in a volcanic meadow fifty _li_ from the capitol, eating cake and basking in one of the last perfectly warm days before the foliage dropped.

Zuko took his job seriously. Aang took his friendship seriously and Mai took his health seriously, and together their logic was implacable: he couldn't do his job if he didn't have both friendship and health.

Thus, flopping.

Zuko let Aang's deft, comical narration of family gossip and political intelligence flow past him, and turned his head to watch the only _un_ flopped member of their party (even Mai was propped on one elbow, idly whittling a bit of soapstone) hurtle across the grass, one arm held high, trailing a banner of dandelion seeds. Princess Ruolan exhausted both her seed head and her available length of meadow simultaneously, and thumped into Appa. The bison yawned widely and let loose a prodigious sneeze, depluming half the dandelions in the field. Ruolan shrieked with glee. She blew and flapped her hands, making a game of pushing the little parachutes about and trying to keep them in the air. Appa eyed her sideways and blew fluff all over her. She blew it back. Appa looked complacent.

Zuko turned back to Aang, who had stopped his recital to watch the byplay as well. Aang flashed a grin and told Zuko, "I promise I won't kidnap her on purpose."

"Do check the saddlebags before you go," Mai counseled.

Zuko just smiled and tipped his head back toward the sunshine, blowing at his own dandelion seed when it drifted over to tickle his nose.

"Katara's sorry to be missing this," Aang remarked. "I should have said earlier. She sends her love.

"She also sends her hopes that you're still planning to attend the Naming of the Speakers at midwinter. Also if you have any fireballs you're not using, please feel totally free to lob them in the general direction of her office in New Gaipan, which she would regard as an act of benevolent liberation." He lay back down, lazily ticking points on his fingers. "And do you need another jar of fish oil? Also I'm supposed to try and get you naked so I can sneak a look at your scar and report back, but I think I probably wasn't supposed to cop to that one."

Zuko stretched out his arms, coincidentally making contact with the pastry basket. "Have your wicked way with me. I'd sacrifice more to keep you from Katara's wrath."

"No wickedness in front of your daughter, dear," Mai enjoined, mildly.

"I think she's sufficiently preoccupied."

Ruolan was playing on Appa's tail, and Appa, properly awake now, seemed to be collaborating, curving it to make a slide, then thumping it so the little girl bounced and flew into the air, landing ecstatically tail-over-teakettle.

"She's not hurting him, is she?" Zuko worried, as Ruolan grabbed bison hair with both fists to haul herself back to her starting point.

"She's his friend; he'll tell her if she's bugging him," Aang said easily.

Appa switched angles, making the princess flip up toward his saddle.

Mai, who had a better angle on the pair than the other two layabouts, suddenly shifted, letting her knife slip from her hand. That alone made Zuko struggle upright. Mai said, "She is his student."


End file.
